


A Million 'Her's

by amethystangel228 (whitedragonpriestess228)



Series: The Shadow Risers [1]
Category: DC Animated Universe, DC Elseworlds, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Aftermath of a big battle, Catatonia, Does it really count as 'Underage' if it's only implied?, F/M, Implied Relationships, Mentioned alternate & parallel realities, Mentioned connection to the DCU, Mentioned manipulation, Metahumans, Original Character-centric, Otherwise fanfiction involving my OCs, Power-induced insanity, vigilantes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 18:31:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7398721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whitedragonpriestess228/pseuds/amethystangel228
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the aftermath of a battle between the Shadow Risers and Armageddon, Doc finds Eternity unconscious and decides to heal him. </p><p>A brief, rather bittersweet, story involving my DCU OCs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Million 'Her's

**Author's Note:**

> The Shadow Risers started as a fully original creation with no connection whatsoever to the DCU. I made them back in 2005-ish.  
> This is their 9th revamping and the one I've truly fallen in love with, so this will be their final form, though their prior forms do have an honorable mention in this ficlet. Hopefully you'll find them and their fellows, Gremlin & Immolation, to be a worthy addition to the DCU.  
> For the record, I am amethystangel228 from DeviantArt, which is where I originally posted these.  
> http://amethystangel228.deviantart.com/
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics, obviously. This means I don't own Arkham or any other DC things I mentioned.  
> Claimer: The Shadow Risers - including Dominus/Mags, Doc/Julia Smith, Nocturnus/Aisling, and others - are mine. Armageddon/Liz Reiley & her twin Matt/Eternity also belong to me. The poor buggers. Hobo Bob is also mine and was dubbed thus by a former coworker of mine; he's actually known as 'the Boogeyman'.

The fight was finally done. Armageddon had been put into a temporary artificial coma by the surprising intervention of Hobo Bob himself, who then wandered off into the night to let the Shadow Risers clean up the mess from the fight. It was really the only way to keep Armageddon docile until the cops arrived with a control collar for her. One of the Shadow Risers slipped away from her fellows then, heading back toward a pile of rubble where they'd hidden the body of Armageddon's twin brother, Eternity.  
  
"Hey, Doc, what are you doing?" Dominus called after her as she crouched in front of the semi-conscious young man, who looked like he was drugged. Doc ignored her teammate and felt the knot on the back of his head, drawing a groan from him before she healed it. She shifted back a little as his eyes cleared for a few moments, then promptly glazed again once the knot was gone. A hand rested on her shoulder while she scowled.  
  
"Just a sec, Mags," she muttered to Dominus, cupping Eternity's head in both hands and concentrating to find out what was wrong with him. The information fed to her through her power told her that it was his powers. Specifically one of them; his brain apparently wasn't able to fully process the power, rendering him partially catatonic. And he couldn't turn it off. Her healing power prodded a little and she yelped as she got flashes of imagery that had to be overflow from his power, jerking back from him and panting. Dominus was panting too. "Did you see that too, chica?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah, I did," the older girl confirmed quietly. "Leave him, Doc. We've gotta get going."  
  
"Not yet," Doc muttered rebelliously, gripping his hands and pouring healing energy into him. His hooded brown eyes cleared and he blinked sleepily.  
  
"Where's Liz?" he slurred as though drugged.  
  
"Unconscious, waiting for the police," Doc replied honestly.  
  
"Good... Keep me 'way from her," he sighed, looking up at her. "Who're you?" he smiled.  
  
"You can call me Doc," she replied. "Why do you want to stay away from her?"  
  
"She's bad... Makes me help her do bad things... Which Doc are you? Julia... Tierza... Celia... Sara... Mackenna...?" his mumbling tapered off while he waited for a response. Doc blinked.  
  
"Oh, um, I'm Julia," she replied while Dominus hissed behind her. "What's--"  
  
"Oh, Jules..." He actually giggled. "I'm in love with you..."  
  
"What?!" Doc squeaked, blushing under her mask. "I don't even know you, amigo!"  
  
"No, no," he laughed, seeming to have a little more clarity for a few minutes. "Not in this reality... But in a lot of realities, I'm in love with you. In a few we're even married," he explained. "In some we're evil together..." his voice started toward that sleepy quality again.  
  
"Hey-hey-hey!" Doc protested, shaking his hands. "Quédate conmigo [1]! What's your name?"  
  
"Matt Reiley," he smiled, seeming even more tired as the moments passed.  
  
"Nice to meet you, Matt Reiley," Doc said, squeezing his hands. "You said Liz makes you do bad things?"  
  
"Yeah," he scowled. "She's evil... And when I'm like this, she just tells me to do it...and I can't stop myself," he sighed. "I'm usually worse than this."  
  
"We noticed earlier," Doc nodded. They'd knocked him unconscious to avoid his powers and he hadn't budged at all, hadn't even tried to defend himself or seemed to notice they were there. "Matt, you know they're going to want to send you to a nuthouse right? Probably Arkham," she said gently.  
  
"No," he pouted. "Can't go to Arkham... They'll probably send Lizzie to Arkham and I don't wanna be near her... Send me to max... I'll just sit in my cell drooling on myself," he muttered.  
  
"That's for them to decide, but we'll see about letting the cops know," she assured him.  
  
"...Will you come visit me, Jules?" he smiled up at her goofily. Doc was taken aback.  
  
"You're not in love with me, remember, Matt?" she said gently. He shook his head.  
  
"I know that...but...you're nice. And I can concentrate around you. And... And... Te conozco, [2]" he muttered, his accent atrocious.  
  
"So you want to stay away from Armageddon and you want Julia Smith on your visitor list? That's it, amigo?" Doc smiled. (She also ignored Dominus choking behind her at the use of her full name.)  
  
"Yeah," he nodded.  
  
"Alright," she nodded. "Dominus, I'll stay with him til the cops get here."  
  
"Um, what? And what if they try to arrest your dumb ass for being a vigilante?" Dominus hissed back. Matt's hands tightened on Doc's, but not painfully; it was like he was reassuring himself that she was there.  
  
"Noct can stay with me and 'port us out?" she offered weakly. Nocturnus heard her codename and walked over, hands on her hips.  
  
"What will Noct be doing?" she asked, audibly frowning. Doc looked up at the tall, imposing figure and gulped. Nocturnus was the founder of the Shadow Risers, the first of them to strike against their enemy and the one that had gathered them all together; she was also la perra egoísta [3] that had renounced her affiliation with them, but still sometimes showed up to team up. They all still respected her and genuinely liked her despite that. She wasn't bad people.  
  
"Hopefully coming back and chilling with me and Matt until the cops get here, then taking me away before the cops do?" Doc replied. Nocturnus sighed and face-palmed over her mask.  
  
"Fine," she confirmed. "Let me get the others out of here, then I'll be back for you. Be ready, Jules."  
  
"¡Sí!" she chirped in response, watching Nocturnus and Dominus walk away before helping Matt to his feet. He was older than her by several years, but he was short as hell. She was five feet even and he was only about a head taller than her! She held in the amusement as she helped him forward to sit on a crate that had survived the fight. Even if it was beat up, he was skinny enough that it should hold.  
  
"Thanks," he smiled.  
  
"How are you feeling?" she asked, watching as shadows engulfed her teammates and they vanished, leaving her alone with the other.  
  
"Like my brain is trying to tear itself into infinite tiny pieces, each one attached to a different reality and/or timeline," he chirped with a delirious smile. "Other than that, I'm peachy. How about you?"  
  
"Amazed at how stupid and tired you sound, amigo."  
  
"I should be insulted, but I'm totally not. I know you're not trying to be mean," he smiled. Doc snorted, unable to help a smile. She felt more pity for him than enmity.  
  
"They'll be here soon, Matt, and then you can get some rest," she said, squeezing his hand and sitting beside him while they waited. He nodded, the smile on his face shrinking as he slumped in his seat a bit.  
  
"Sleep sounds good..." he yawned, resting his head on her shoulder. Soon enough he began to snore and Doc sighed, looking upward as the sirens got closer at last. A hand rested on her free shoulder and she looked up into the revealed face of Aisling, aka Nocturnus.  
  
"Ace?" she hissed, blinking under her mask. The slightly older girl's dark green eyes were concerned and gentle.  
  
"He'll be alright," she said softly before her mask slid back into place to hide her face again, her hand sliding off of Doc's shoulder. That was why they missed her as their leader. Doc sighed again, feeling a little more relieved at Ace's confidance.  
  
"He will be, won't he?" she smiled, looking up as the police cars screeched to stops around them. They approached in groups with guns drawn. One group got Armageddon and slapped her with a control collar. Nocturnus helped her lift Matt and they looked up as a group approached them.  
  
"His name is Matt Reiley. He's willingly turning himself in, but says he was coerced by his partner. He's been working under the name Eternity. He will fully cooperate with you and has only two requests: he wishes to be kept far away from her," Nocturnus tilted her head toward where Armageddon was being taken, "and he wishes to have one Julia Smith on his visitor list."  
  
"...Really? He's not going to fight?" a senior officer inched forward.  
  
"No sir," Doc chirped. "He's exhausted right now anyway, so I don't think he could fight if he wanted to." A few of the officers snorted and two of them got ahold of Matt, taking him to a waiting car.  
  
"And what about you ladies?" the senior officer looked back at them. "We should be taking you in too."  
  
"You should," Nocturnus replied honestly. "But we'd really prefer to go home and take a nap." Then shadows engulfed her and Doc, startled cries erupting from the police. Doc never heard if they started shooting or not, because the girls were already long gone by then...

\----

It was a few weeks later that a teenaged girl with a dark brown ponytail and big blue eyes showed up at Western State Penitentiary to visit Matthew Reiley. She was his first visitor since his arrest and the officers were surprised anyone had shown up for him at all. The newspapers said his family had all but disowned him and his twin sister, who had been his partner Armageddon.  
  
But still they went and retrieved the catatonic young man from his cell, taking him into the special room they'd had built to contain metahumans. There were two guards in the room as he was shackled to the metal table to visit with the young girl. Those guards were very unnerved when the two just sat in silence for a few minutes before the girl rested one hand over his.  
  
And, just like a clockwork doll coming to life, Matt jerked and his eyes cleared as they looked up to the girl across from him. To his eyes he was seeing a million different 'her's at the exact same time, a million different forms and ages. But it was her. She was here.  
  
"Hey Jules," he breathed. "I wasn't sure you'd come..."  
  
"Of course I came, pendejo [4]," she smiled in response. "After all, you're in love with me."

\----------------------------------------------------------------------  
[1] "Quédate conmigo!" = "Stay with me!"  
[2] "Te conozco." = "I know you."  
[3] 'la perra egoísta' = 'the selfish bitch'  
[4] 'pendejo' = 'stupid'

**Author's Note:**

> Doc's use of Spanish is because her mother is half-Hispanic and they both love their heritage and the language of their ancestors. They primarily speak Spanish to each other. If any of the Spanish is wrong, I'm really sorry. I don't speak it. I used Google Translate.  
> I hope people enjoy! R&R please :)


End file.
